This article contains spoilers for The Map That Leads to You.
Hopefully, you stocked up on tissues before watching The Map That Leads to You, because Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa’s globe-trotting romance doesn’t end in “happily ever after.” But what exactly does that ambiguous final scene mean?
Prime Video’s adaptation of JP Monninger’s novel of the same name pretty much follows the book’s story all the way through to its bittersweet end. Recent college grad Heather (Cline) meets the charming yet mysterious Jack (Apa) on her European girls’ trip. As the two fall in love, Heather begins to question her strict, stable plan for the rest of her life, including the job she was about to start in New York. But Jack hides his cancer diagnosis from her, and ultimately ghosts her to save her from the pain of watching him die.
Courtesy of Prime
Without any answers to why Jack disappeared, Heather tries to move on. But meeting Jack changed her life. She realizes she didn’t want to go into finance, quits her job, and moves back home with her dad (Josh Lucas). When she finally learns the truth about Jack’s cancer in a letter he wrote to her, she tracks him down to the festival in Bulgaria he had always talked about seeing.
As the two passionately reunite, he reminds her that he couldn’t give her a future. But Heather tells him that she doesn’t care. All that matters is that they are together now. The credits roll as they kiss, leaving what happens next up to viewers’ imaginations. And even the film’s stars disagree on what the ending means for Heather and Jack.
“We both really love the movie, but the end is interesting,” Apa tells Entertainment Weekly.
Courtesy of Prime
“I love the ending — I love ambiguity in an ending,” Cline says. “I know it irks some people, but I prefer an ambiguous ending. I imagine the ending being a little bit more ambiguous.”
“I believe that Jack died, and I was sad about it,” Apa explains. “I didn’t expect him to continue living after. But maybe he lives. You never know.”
“No, it’s unclear,” Cline argues, before joking that there will be a sequel. “Who said that?”
While Apa loves movies with “hopeful” endings, Cline prefers stories like this that seemingly end in tragedy.
“The first time I read it, I sobbed,” she says. “I loved how much it moved me, and not because I felt like the script was trying to make anyone cry. It’s just a story that I felt was very touching, and I couldn’t imagine how many people have gone through life and have a love story like this, or you fall in love with someone, and then you feel like life is stopping you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. How deeply that hurts, mourning something that could be.”
“At least you didn’t die,” Apa quips.
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But while Cline loves watching doomed love stories, she hopes that viewers learn a more positive lesson from the movie.
“Fall in love. Be in love,” she says. “Doesn’t matter if it hurts, just do it.”
The Map That Leads to You is now streaming on Prime Video.
